Final - Thanks for following along as the Blackhawks have won 2-1 and I'm signing off of here for the evening.
Final - Game 6 will be on at 8 PM ET between the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks as the Blackhawks will have a 3-2 series lead when they hit the ice on Monday night, June 15th.
Final - Chicago will head back home to the United Center to attempt to win the Stanley Cup at home for the first time since 1938.
Final - The stars of the game have been announced and Corey Crawford is the first star, Niklas Hjalmarsson is the second star, and then Victor Hedman is the third star for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Final - Corey Crawford though is the VAVEL USA player of the game in this contest. Saving 31 shots tonight and only giving up 1 goal.
Final - Antoine Vermette hit the game winner for Chicago after a beautiful pass from Kris Versteeg with 18 minutes left in the third.
Final - There is some tension down by Ben Bishop's goal as they start to scuffle after the Blackhawks run out the clock.
3P 0:08 - Tampa Bay gets called for too many men on the ice as they have 7 men out there and Chicago gets a power play and Ben Bishop is back in the goal.
3P 1:02 - Ben Bishop is finally pulled from the game as they have the empty net.
3P 1:40 - Anton Stralman with a decent attempt but it was deflected away as Teuvo Teravainen gets a shot on goal that Ben Bishop is able to sotp.
3P 2:38 - Braydon Coburn with a shot up close to the goal this time, but Corey Crawford gets his glove on the ground.
3P 3:12 - Brian Boyle with a great shot from the left wing, but Corey Crawford stops yet another one.
3P 3:37 - Jason Garrison with a fantastic shot from back by the blue line, but Corey Crawford is able to stop it again as he is standing on his head.
3P 4:02 - Ondrej Palat with a great chance in front of Corey Crawford as it is stopped and then sent the other way for an icing call.
3P 4:41 - Tampa has not been getting a lot of good looks, and it appears it may just be a matter of time before they pull Ben Bishop for the extra man advantage.
3P 6:08 - Kris Versteeg gets a quick shot off a faceoff and Ben Bishop gets a wonderful save.
3P 6:22 - It looked like Steven Stamkos was going to have a fantastic shot from the right wing but Niklas Hjalmarsson did a fantastic job of denying him and keeping the puck far from the net.
3P 6:41 - Patrick Kane kept it out of the reach of the Lightning but it went all the way down to the other end for icing.
3P 7:04 - A stoppage in play as Patrick Sharp tossed the puck across the blue line.
3P 7:41 - Andrew Desjardins with the first shot on goal and then the puck was lose and then there was a dog pile that Ben Bishop kept the puck from the net.
3P 8:36 - Chicago just kept getting it barely out of their zone and then Teuvo Teravainen shots one and it was stopped by the glove of Ben Bishop.
3P 10:02 - Ben Bishop stops another stop up to him and covers as there was plenty of traffic with Andrew Shaw face guarding him.
3P 10:25 - Andrew Desjardins had a clear shot for Chicago but he was denied another time.
3P 10:36 - Teuvo Teravainen gets called for the offside after the puck went back out of the zone.
3P 11:29 - Corey Crawford keeps doing a little bit of everything as he stops a puck that Ryan Callahan flipped into the zone.
3P 12:39 - Victor Hedman with a strong shot but Corey Crawford able to send this one away again. Lightning just missed a good chance at a rebound there too.
3P 13:33 - Corey Crawford with another save as they continue to pressure the puck.
3P 13:43 - Alex Killorn with an excellent shot on goal after some nice passing up out of the defensive zone and Crawford gloves it again as the Lightning have put more urgency in their game now that they are down 2-1 in this critical game 5.
3P 15:00 - Jason Garrison with a nice shot on goal as he led the Lightning down into the offensive zone.
3P 16:30 - Andrej Sustr with a shot on goal now as Corey Crawford keeps sending the puck away.
3P 16:50 - Steven Stamkos with a great goal but it goes right into the glove of Corey Crawford as it would have been wide right anyway, but have to protect the goal.
3P 16:56 - Off the faceoff, the Blackhawks end up getting called for icing.
3P 17:03 - The Lightning are offside again, for the third time this period.
3P 18:00 - Kris Versteeg with a breakaway, throws it in front of the net, Antoine Vermette with a goal to give the Blackhawks a one goal lead as they are up 2-1.
3P 18:35 - Brenden Morrow had a great shot with no one between him and the goal, but he is denied by Corey Crawford.
3P 18:56 - Duncan Keith with a shot toward the goal but the defender in front of Ben Bishop stops the puck.
3P 19:33 - Braydon Coburn is called for offsides as the clock stops for another faceoff.
3P 20:00 - Cedric Paquette wins the opening faceoff of the period and we are officially underway.
3P 20:00 - The players are on the ice and we are simply awaiting the opening faceoff of this period.
2nd Intermission - At this point we simply are waiting for them to restart and get the third period underway. This intermission is nearly over.
2nd Intermission - It is going to be interesting to see exactly how the third period goes as both teams appear to be much closer than they have seemed. There has yet to be a two goal lead in this series.
2nd Intermission - Duncan Keith has played the most minutes in the game so far with 20:54. Tampa Bay has been far more balanced as Braydon Coburn leads the team with just 14:33.
2nd Intermission - Brandon Saad has the most shots on goal tonight with 3 so far.
2nd Intermission - Tampa Bay out shot the Blackhawks during the second by a total of 12-8.
2nd Intermission - Valtteri Filppula is the player of the second period as he tied the game up at 1 a piece.
2nd Intermission - Antoine Vermette finishes the period with the puck in his defensive zone as he put it up near the ice to stall the rest of the time off the clock.
2P 0:11 - Duncan Keith went back after they lost the puck and attempted a deep pass but it was untouched and back in his zone for icing.
2P 0:29 - Johnny Oduya again with another deep shot from back by the blue line as the Blackhawks appear to have control of the puck at the moment.
2P 1:10 - Patrick Kane with a nice shot but it went above the glove and hit the glass.
2P 2:00 - Ben Bishop was playing the puck behind the goal and was taken down by Marcus Kruger.
2P 2:48 - Johnny Oduya attempted a shot but it was deflected away again by the Lightning defense.
2P 3:59 - A close one there for the Blackhawks as Corey Crawford saved it but it hit him in the chest and was laying right in front of the net, but the rebound was tipped away.
2P 4:53 - Valtteri Filppula with another chance as Ryan Callahan had an excellent pass but the angle just wasn't quite right and the puck went out of play.
2P 5:07 - Andrew Desjardins and Andrew Shaw both on offense with a 2 on 2 but Bishop again magnificient with another save.
2P 5:29 - Matthew Carle with a shot on goal as they entered the offensive zone but Corey Crawford gloves it and they have another stoppage in play.
2P 6:34 - The penalty has been killed. Still no power play goals tonight.
2P 7:27 - Victor Hedman attempted one from the blue line but Marian Hossa was able to stop it and sent it away.
2P 8:21 - Niklas Hjalmarsson tosses it away since there is no fear of icing on the power play defense.
2P 8:34 - The penalty is called for slashing. Here is the power play and let's see how this goes.
2P 8:35 - Ryan Callahan had a great chance at another goal and missed it just wide left. But seconds later there was a penalty on Brandon Saad. Now Tampa Bay will have their first power play chance of the game after they tied it up at one just seconds earlier.
2P 9:07 - Valtteri Filppula gets this one in assisted by Jason Garrison and Anton Stralman.
2P 9:15 - Duncan Keith tried to clear the puck but it was held in by the Lightning.
2P 10:16 - They are saying that Nikita Kucherov has not come back to the bench yet for the Lightning. It is highly unlikely that he will be back in this game. I would probably believe that this is a concussion.
2P 10:16 - Over 8 minutes of hockey without a whistle until Ben Bishop just gloved a shot by Niklas Hjalmarsson and we are going to take a quick break.
2P 11:10 - The puck has been going back and forth again the last 2 minutes as one team has a shot that is well defended and then it is well defended again at the other end.
2P 13:15 - Kris Versteeg and Marian Hossa both were able to get shots on goal on Bishop, but he is standing on his head and not letting anything up other than on that miscue earlier with Victor Hedman.
2P 13:45 - The Lightning really should get something here as Chicago has struggled to get the puck out of their own zone for the last 2 minutes.
2P 14:50 - Cedric Paquette fired a nice one toward the goal but it was deflected away from the goal.
2P 15:55 - Corey Crawford with back to back good saves against Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson as Tampa Bay is trying to even this one back up.
2P 17:05 - Excellent work on the penalty kill for the Lightning as they only allowed 2 shots on goal. Teuvo Teravainen though had a chance just against Ben Bishop and shot it too high.
2P 18:40 - Patrick Kane with a shot on goal but Bishop gets it and is able to hold on.
2P 19:13 - Braydon Coburn slipped and fell in his own and turned it over which led to a hooking penalty on Cedric Paquette for the first power play of the game.
2P 20:00 - The second period is officially underway.
1st Intermission - For what it's worth, the team who has scored first has won 3 of the four games, which would be the last 3 games. Obviously this doesn't mean that Chicago will win. But it can be taken as a positive sign for the Blackhawks.
1st Intermission - Ben Bishop faced 14 shots on goal during the first period, and his defense stopped 9 more shots. That's a total of 23 shots attempted during the opening frame for Chicago, who put the pressure on Tampa Bay early and often in the opening period.
1st Intermission - Braydon Coburn has played the most minutes for the Tampa Bay Lightning through one period and has 1 blocked shot and 3 hits.
1st Intermission - Niklas Hjalmarsson has played the most minutes so far for Chicago and has 3 blocked shots and a shot on goal.
1st Intermission - The first period ends with Chicago out shooting the Lightning 14-5.
1st Intermission - Initially, the Patrick Sharp goal was listed as unassisted, but now, they have given assists to both Teuvo Teravainen and Jonathan Toews.
1st Intermission - Jonathan Toews wins the faceoff but Marian Hossa was unable to get off a good shot. The Chicago Blackhawks lead 1-0 after the first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
1P 0:03 - Ben Bishop covers the puck up as Patrick Sharp was going to look for a rebound and there will be one more faceoff before the end of the period.
1P 0:40 - Brent Seabrook with another shot on goal as he jumped into the offensive zone so that Chicago could keep control of the puck.
1P 1:21 - Andrew Desjardins took the puck out of the zone and had a shot on goal but Ben Bishop was able to cover it up and prevent anything from happening.
1P 1:35 - Duncan Keith clears the puck out of the zone, but it will be back in the zone as they are called for icing.
1P 2:40 - The puck had deflected off of the skate of Antoine Vermette and went in front of the net but no one around to try and put that one in.
1P 3:18 - Cedric Paquette attempted to put a shot on goal at the other end but it was deflected out of play.
1P 3:37 - Patrick Kane had a chance in traffic after getting a pass from Brad Richards right in front of the net.
1P 4:46 - Marcus Kruger with a shot on goal, not really with a lot of force but trying to get something going again for Chicago.
1P 5:07 - They have reported that the Blackhawks have not gotten a shot on goal in the last 5 minutes.
1P 5:07 - Lots of passing back and forth as it has gone back and forth down the ice a few times as teams are looking for some line changes.
1P 6:15 - Niklas Hjalmarsson with a bad pass that was stolen and led to a shot by Ondrej Palat. Corey Crawford stopping another Lightning opportunity as the goalies are shining again tonight.
1P 7:45 - J.T. Brown had a good opportunity on goal but Corey Crawford with another save tonight.
1P 8:45 - Lightning starting to look more aggressive as they appear to be putting more of a focus on puck possession.
1P 9:50 - Still no word on Nikita Kucherov yetas they do a break interview with Jon Cooper.
1P 10:00 - Lightning really taking their time to get into the offensive zone, Steven Stamkos had a shot that went wide left of Corey Crawford again and it was deflected out of play to another commercial.
1P 11:25 - Duncan Keith had a nice deflection of an Alex Killorn pass which led to Brandon Saad shooting it under the glove of Ben Bishop but wide right.
1P 12:32 - Jonathan Drouin just missed an opportunity on a one timer shooting it wide left of the goal.
1P 13:30 - It's finally the first commercial break of the game and my fingers needed the rest.
1P 13:49 - Patrick Sharp GETS THE FIRST GOAL OF THE GAME!!!!! Victor Hedman ran into Ben Bishop out as the goalie was far out of the goal. The trainer appears to be talking to Bishop to make sure he is okay. Bishop was out past the faceoff circle on his side and Patrick Sharp gets the unassisted goal.
1P 14:50 - Nikita Kucherov stole a pass from Corey Crawford and had a chance to get it into a nearly empty net, but Crawford basically cross checked him to get the puck away and Kucherov's head hit the post. He is leaving the ice and we will let you know if he is okay.
1P 15:02 - Patrick Kane has been matched up with defenseman Victor Hedman and it is a tough matchup for the Blackhawks Captain.
1P 15:28 - Valtteri Filppula with a good shot on goal and they just missed a rebound chance as well as they put a heater on Corey Crawford.
1P 16:43 - The Blackhawks now have 7 shots on goal and the Lightning have not had any yet as Chicago appears to be more aggressive to start this game.
1P 17:17 - Brent Seabrook with a strong shot on goal but the rebound bounced away from Kris Versteeg as they miss another opportunity early on.
1P 18:06 - The Lightning had a 3 on 2 edge but didn't get a good shot on goal as the pass to Ondrej Palat was tight and he couldn't get enough mustard on the shot.
1P 18:39 - Brandon Saad with back to back shots on goal as Bishop saves and holds onto the second one to prevent any more rebound chances.
1P 19:22 - Duncan Keith had a shot on goal but Ben Bishop is able to deflect it away.
1P (20:00) - Jonathan Toews wins the opening faceoff against Cedric Paquette.
Now that the ceremonies are all done, it is time for the players to get on the ice and get this game underway.
Also, a Medal of Honor receipient is present with them on the ice, only adding to the excitement.
The National Anthem is being sung by Sonya Bryson of the United States Air Force.
One person who I haven't discussed as much heading into this game is Brent Seabrook, who is the other defenseman who has been playing slightly less than Duncan Keith.
Anything can happen here in game 5 as neither team seems to be able to blow the other team out.
Amalie Arena is rocking as Ben Bishop is actually going to start this game.
It sounds like they are finally going to drop the puck at 8:20 PM to get this first period underway. So another 14 minutes for all of us to wait.
I still need to get my prediction in on this game 5. I feel like there needs to be a higher scoring game so I have Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane both getting goals as the Blackhawks take game 5 and head back to Chicago after a 5-3 victory.
The experts from the NHL Network have picked Chicago on a 2:1 ratio. Granted there were only three of them, but Tampa Bay continues to be considered the underdog in this series with the experience that the Blackhawks have.
It's been a tough 3 day break between games and it is about time for us to get even closer to the puck dropping on the ice for the opening faceoff.
Speaking of excellent defense, that has been highlighted by both Duncan Keith for the Blackhawks and Victor Hedman of the Lightning.
Many experts predicted that this series would be a high scoring series, but it has been thrilling due to four one goal games. But the team defense and goalie play has been absolutely wonderful. Only 18 total goals between two teams through 4 games as it is just 4.5 combind goals per game.
Another thing that will be intriguing is whether or not Patrick Kane can score his first goal of the series tonight as he has surprisingly been held scoreless.
It is being reported on NHL.com that Ben Bishop is warming up on the ice prior to game 5 and is expected to start.
In other Chicago and Tampa Bay news today, the Chicago White Sox lost to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field today. Brad Boxberger was credited with the win and first baseman Jake Elmore had the game winning RBI in the bottom of the eighth as the Rays won 5-4.
Still 20 minutes to gametime and there has yet to be an annoucement about whether or not Ben Bishop will start in goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
If forced to make a guess, this writer would say that Ben Bishop is going to come out and play tonight because he's a hockey player and he is tough, but at the same time that's incredibly hard to know with an undisclosed injury and the Lightning certainly don't seem to know one way or another about this.
If Ben Bishop is not ready to play, then they will be forced to go with their backup goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy. Andrei has saved 91.7% of the shots that he has faced in this series, playing late in game 2 and all of game 4, but that's just 22 of 24 shots. But that is absurdly close to his regular season save percentage of 91.8%. Will the pressure of the playoffs get to him if he has to play another game, this time with the pressure of a game 5 on the line? That remains to be seen and it may not even need to be seen at all.
But once again the primary question for this game has to be whether or not Ben Bishop is going to be in the goal tonight. The latest update from their Saturday Morning skate was that he was on the ice practicing with his teammates, as reported on twitter by John Shannon of Sportsnet. The big American goalie has been phenomenal in these playoffs as he has beaten Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist in the previous two series and is trying to defeat a former Stanley Cup Champion in Corey Crawford. He had his first full season in goal this year and has been great in these playoffs for the Lightning. Plus he is 6'7" and 214 pounds, which makes it awfully difficult to get anything past him.
One of the players that has been much quieter in this seriesthan this writer had expected coming into game 5 is Lightning right winger, Nikita Kucherov. He has a key contributer in many of the Lightning's postseason wins, since he has 19 points in their wins in these playoffs, and just 3 points in Lightning losses. Look for him to make an impact again on home ice, as the last time they were at Amalie Arena he scored 1 goal and had 1 assist for his best game of the Stanley Cup Finals so far. But as someone who came into these finals with 9 goals and 10 assists, yours truly was hoping the young 21 year old Russian would be able to bring even more excitement and energy to what has been a fantastic finals to this point.
A big part of the defensive success of the Blackhawks though, has to be attributed to their star defenseman, Duncan Keith. Keith has been playing just shy of 30 minutes a game in this series, which despite having all one goal games, has yet to see an overtime contest to this point. He has 2 assists and no goals but has a +/- of +2, which is excellent considering the high number of minutes they have had him on the ice. He does have 5 shots on goal as well in this series, and it would be great to see him get a little bit more support on the scoreboard then what he has had so far.
Corey Crawford has been doing an excellent job in the net for the Blackhawks during this series, as it seems like the Lightning have been just a little bit faster than the Blackhawks and have been getting some quality shots on him. His goal against average in the series has been 2.29, which is right by his regular season average of 2.27, and he has a 91.3% save percentage.
One player that the Tampa Bay Lightning must be expecting to play better is Center Steven Stamkos. He is their captain, and he has been held scoreless and only has 1 assist in this series against the Blackhawks after having 43 goals and 29 assists during the regular season. It's disappointing to see him not getting the puck in the net, since he has attempted 11 shots on goal during the series and is expected to be a leader on a very young Tampa Bay Lightning squad.
The leading goal scorers in this series are Alex Killorn and Cedric Pacquette with 2 each for the Lightning, and Brandon Saad and Teuvo Teravainen with 2 for the Blackhawks. It will be interesting to see if any of them can get on the board again in order to give their team
The main question is whether or not Ben Bishop is going to play in front of the net in game 4 for the Lightning. He played the entire game during games 1 and 3, both of the Lightning victories, but was pulled in the waning minutes of game 2 for Andrei Vasilevskiy, who played the entirety in game 4 also in the goal.
After four thrilling games in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning are all tied up at two games a piece. Tampa Bay has home ice again as they return to Amalie Arena for game 5 and will also host game 7 if needed.